


quiet me

by dankscully



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9653105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankscully/pseuds/dankscully
Summary: waffle gave me the prompt "quiet me" from a prompt list for xena/gab so... here you go !!! this is just a tiny drabble but anyway, enjoy.





	

Xena ran her filleting knife through the freshly caught fish. From her position beside the fire, she watched in silence as Gabrielle paced back and forth at the perimeter of their campsite. Even from a distance, Xena could see the way her companions knuckles had turned white from gripping her staff so tightly.

She wiped her knife against an old piece of cloth. Xena knew she needed to say something, needed to make it right. The problem was, she’d never been good with words. Apologising wasn’t one of her many skills. She could hear Gabrielle taking her anger out on the trunk of a tree, the rhythmic _THUNK THUNK THUNK_ echoing through the otherwise quiet forest. Argo whinnied somewhere nearby, startled by the sudden noise. **  
**

“Easy girl,” Xena murmured, wiping her hands on a section of cloth not covered in fish scales.

She set the freshly-gutted fish aside and watched as Gabrielle struck a final blow against the tree trunk before she sank to the ground, defeated. The forest fell silent again. Xena fiddled with the wooden handle of her filleting knife absently, running her thumb over the well-worn grooves. Then, in one decisive movement, she rose to her feet and left the warmth of the campfire.

As she approached, Xena purposefully pressed her boot down on a small branch, letting the quiet _snap_ alert Gabrielle to her presence without startling her. Gabrielle’s shoulders stiffened immediately, but she didn’t raise her head. In a few short strides, Xena reached her companion and dropped to a crouch in front of her.

“Gabrielle,” Xena began, her voice faltering as she realised she hadn’t thought of what to say next.

She was still clutching the filleting knife. Fixing her attention on the smooth of the wood as she turned it over in her hands, she continued.

“I’m sorry about what happened today,”

Gabrielle didn’t respond, but Xena forged ahead anyway.

“I let you down,” she offered quietly. “It was my fault he escaped.”

At this, Gabrielle raised her head. Xena had expected her to be crying, but instead she looked enraged.

“You’re right,” Gabrielle countered. “It was your fault. You should have killed him.”

Xena paused fidgeting with her knife, fixing Gabrielle with a confused stare.

“He still deserves a fair tri-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Gabrielle snatched the knife from Xena’s hands and in one fluid movement launched to her feet. With a flick of her wrist, the blade opened with a satisfying _snap_.

“No, he doesn’t!” Gabrielle raised her voice. It echoed through the quiet night. “I’m going after him, Xena. I’m going to make him pay for what he did to those women.”

“Gab-” Xena started as she began to rise to her feet, but found herself at the point of the filleting knife before she could finish.

Gabrielle’s anger wasn’t misplaced - in another life Xena wouldn’t have thought twice about plunging that knife into a man that vile, and she probably would have enjoyed it considerably. But that wasn’t who she was anymore. She wasn’t a murderer. Nor was Gabrielle.

The blade caught the light from the fire and glinted dangerously. Gabrielle clenched her jaw and fixed Xena with a defiant stare, trying to mask the ever-so-slight tremble of the knife clutched in her hand. Xena knew it was a bluff, but it unsettled her nevertheless.

“Gabrielle…” she began again, quietly. “Think about this. This isn’t like you. You’re the one who argues for a fair trial for everyone, because that’s what’s _right_. You see the good in people. Even the ones who seem irredeemable.”

Xena offered a lopsided smile at the self-deprecating remark. Her words seemed to have an immediate effect, Gabrielle’s features softened as her anger began to dissipate.

Reaching a tentative hand towards the knife, Xena moved slowly and carefully as if she were approaching a wild animal. Gabrielle didn’t resist as Xena’s hands wrapped gently around her soft fingers to pry the blade away. In silence, the wooden handle slipped from her grasp and with a dull _thud_ , Xena discarded it.

Xena lifted her hand to Gabrielle’s face, pushing errant strands of blonde hair away from her eyes. She drew her fingers along the contours of Gabrielle’s cheeks, running the rough pad of her thumb against the smooth skin. Gabrielle closed her eyes, and Xena saw the fight leave her. She let her fingers travel the length of Gabrielle’s jawbone, gently tilting her head upwards. Without a word, Xena pressed a light kiss against Gabrielle’s lips. She slipped her free hand around Gabrielle’s waist and drew their bodies closer together.

Xena pressed another light kiss against the corner of Gabrielle’s mouth, then pulled away slowly. For several long moments they stayed that way, holding each other close, neither one wanting to move from the warm embrace.

“I promised you we would go after him in the morning,” Xena murmured quietly, breaking the silence. “I meant it. By nightfall tomorrow he will be back in that town. His victims deserve to be the ones to pass judgement on him, not us.”

Gabrielle nodded her head mutely against Xena’s shoulder, drawing in a long, deep breath to steady herself.

—–

They lay bundled under a heap of warm furs beside the dying campfire, Xena’s breath warm against Gabrielle’s neck, one strong arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

“Xena?” Gabrielle murmured sleepily.

“Mm?” Xena responded, nestling her head gently into the short hairs at the back of her companion’s neck.

“When we catch him, can I at least punch him in the face?”

Xena couldn’t help her grin, and she drew Gabrielle’s body closer her to her.

“Oh, absolutely.”

**Author's Note:**

> im sapphicxena on tumblr, come say hi !!


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